Cousins picked up his first technical with 2:33 left in the first half and he didn’t think the call was fair. He wanted to talk to the officials about it. Cousins picks up the story there, speaking after the game as reported by NBA.com.

“Before that [the officials] tell us if you have a problem with them, come talk to them. They give us permission to do that. I tried to wait until the play was over. I waited until the play stopped. I went up to the ref. He kept telling me, ‘Don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me, I don’t want to talk to you.’ So I waited until halftime. He said the same thing. He was saying, ‘Don’t talk to me.’ So my response was, ‘You don’t have to act like an effing female.’ I shouldn’t have said that. That’s about it.”

Yup, shouldn’t have said that.

As noted last night, this is vintage Cousins. As he has said before himself, when he feels he has been wronged he can’t just let something go, he can’t walk away, he feels that he needs to be talk about it. And in that zeal he loses track of the bigger picture — his teammates, the game, everything. It’s a threshold of maturity Cousins has yet to pass.

Cousins has not learned to pick his battles. There are times to walk away… like when the referee says, “’Don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me, I don’t want to talk to you” for example. The Kings were in a tight game with the Jazz that they ended up losing in overtime. You think the Kings could have used their best player on the court after halftime?

Ultimately, this is on Cousins. He’s a man and has to take responsibility for his actions.

However, you’d think his teammates would have caught onto this “weakness” of Cousins by now and would know to try to stop it.

You see it all the time on other teams – a young player gets a call he disagrees with, and he starts to argue, but a couple of veteran teammates come over, drag him away, and calm him down. Cousins sounds like he could really use teammates who would “talk him down” when stuff like this happens.

Cousins needs to grow up, but his teammates would be doing him (and the team as a whole) a favor by intervening in the future.

Yep there is – not complain about the bad reputation he has as being somehow unfair.

He’s the guy who constantly complains about how things aren’t his fault, but he’s always the one who winds up in these situations. And it’s not just refs; the reputation is universal, even among players. Remember the comments about him after the Olympic tryouts?

Did you ever hear him in an interview?

He has done nothing to alter that bad reputation. He needs to grow up.

LPad - Feb 5, 2013 at 4:41 PM

So he needs to apologize for not letting Blake Griffin dunk on him in a tryout. OK.

Who on that roster is going to tell Cousins off? The only veterans on that team are journeymen/bench type guys. Cousins isn’t going to listen to them, he knows he can get away with being a, well, effing female dog, because he is the future of the organization. He knows it, the coach knows it, ownership knows it, and his teammates know it.

The best thing for him would be to get the hell off that team and go somewhere with a mentor type player. [homer alert] I know its a pipe dream, but I really think that going to Boston and having KG bark at him constantly would do wonders for him. It would probably be rocky at first, but KG would stand up to Cousin’s when he pulls this sh*t. That’s exactly what this dude needs.

I’m not saying that cousins isnt a headcase, but if his version is accurate it’s almost like the ref’s are baiting him a bit. Its wouldn’t have killed the ref to hear him out. the nba’s refs are the worst of any pro league with their inconsistancy and arrogance.

This kid is the reincarnation of Rasheed Wallace. He’ll float through the league for the next 12 years causing trouble for any organization that decides to trust him. He’ll leave locker rooms in shambles and never reach his full potential. Of course it will be everyone else’s fault. Yet he won’t care “becuz he be gettin paid”!

How exactly is he leaving locker rooms in shambles? Surely, you aren’t blaming him for the Kings losing. That has more to do with the broke Maloof brothers barely investing anything into the team, refusing to sign any decent free agents, etc. I don’t follow the Kings, is he and Tyreke Evans fighting in the locker room or something?

btw, even good locker room guys get lots of techs. For ex., Tyson Chandler.

Rasheed is an NBA Champ and loved by every single teammate he has had. He had personality and passion for the game. He spoke up when he thought there was injustice, maybe sometimes he was wrong, but he never had evil intentions. Rasheed is respected by many and should never be compared to a chemically imbalanced person like Cousins.

Once again, one team can control this guy. And they have the track record with guys like him, coach and Hall of Fame caliber veteran leadership (those guys that need to huddle around him right before he’s about to go off on someone) for the job. They will get him to buy in. They always do.

I would take Cousins in a second.This guy has so much upside that it makes you head spin. Dwight Howard could not hold his jock strap. Thibs could make a man out of him by just repeating every few minutes hey Cous “Just do your job”. He is standing right on the court most of the time like he is prepared to punch a ref or yell at Boozer. Me thinks Cousins does not respect his coach, so therefore he don’t give a rats arse about his current coach and owner. He needs a real no nonsense coach like our Thibs. DAAAAA BUUUUULLLLLSSSSS!!!